The Dark Princess
by Wandering Child
Summary: AU. The Prince never meets the enchantress, but instead grows into a vain, arrogant man. When he sees the hauntingly beautiful Belle, he quickly arranges a marriage. Now Belle wonders if she will ever fall asleep beside a man who is more than a monster.
1. Chapter 1

The autumn wind blew violently against the small cottage, sending a chill down the young woman's spine, despite the fire in the hearth.

"Belle you don't know what you're doing!"

Belle 's father sat in a well worn stuffed chair, blankets wrapped around his frail frame. She looked at him with sad eyes.

"Yes, I do, Papa." She was beyond yelling back at him at this point, not wanting to upset him further, instead speaking with a resigned sort of calm.

Belle sat at the small table in the front room. A marriage contract lay before her on the surface. At her back, royal guards stood at attention. A representative for his royal highness, Prince Adamos, stood by her side.

"His highness has offered his hand in marriage." She said much more firmly than her nerves should have allowed. She prayed that her father's failing eyesight would overlook that her hands were shaking. "I will accept."

"A man that you have never even met?" Maurice roared, and for a moment, Belle was terrified that he would actually launch himself from the chair. "A man who does not even come for you himself? "

The prince's representative coughed uncomfortably beside her, possessed of enough tact to let father and daughter have their moment, though in his mind, the Honorable Lumière Auguste knew that there was no way that he was leaving without the girl. Lumière swallowed the sting of guilt. She was the most beautiful creature that he had ever seen, perhaps twenty years of age, with rosy skin, deep, dark eyes, and hair the color of polished mahogany. That beauty was to be her downfall, as it was what had caught the prince's eye when they had passed her out riding in the fields one day. Lumière had prayed that her beauty would conceal a vain, childish character, much like the prince's own – but no. To his horror, not only was this perfect creature beautiful, but kind and selfless as well. And he would deliver her to a monster – to his master – a vain prince who had never had a selfless thought in his life. The kind of man who would propose marriage to a beautiful peasant girl only to most likely abandon her when he grew bored. Lumière loved the prince, the boy whom he had served since birth, the boy that he had once affectionately called Adam. Every servant in the palace had doted on the young prince, the only child of French King's long dead brother and his wife. Perhaps they had all loved him too well, spoiled him beyond saving – for it was moments like this when Lumière felt hate.

"What other choice do I have Papa?" Belle's voice broke through Lumière's morbid thoughts. "Marry Gaston? Stay here and suffer his attempts? Which I will remind you become more and more drastic every day."

"We'll move away. "

"With what money?" Belle shook her head sadly. "Papa, you're growing older, growing sicker." A tear fell almost gracefully down her face. She dashed it away quickly. "Papa," she said against a burn in her throat, "you are weaker every day."

Only last month, Maurice had been wounded terribly on the way to a country fair. Lost and alone, he had been come upon by wolves in the forest. If not for the speed of his horse he surely would have died. Maurice had outrun them, but only barely before one had jumped up and taken a nasty bite at his leg. The infection had almost killed him. He could barely walk.

"Do not insult me by insinuating that I cannot take care of my family."

"No Papa, of course you can. But now I can too. I will marry the prince. I will be able to care for you beyond our wildest dreams. "

"Belle – "

"I will not marry Gaston!"

"Better the devil you know!"

Belle only shook her head.

"Belle no! No, I won't let you do this. You!" he sneered at Lumière. "How dare you come in here with you guards and your pomp and your marriage contracts from a man who is not worthy of his title!"

"Monsieur," Lumière said with a start. "Do not presume to insult – "

"I'll insult whomever I damn please! This marriage offer is an insult to my daughter. Belle" he said turning his face back to her. "My girl, my beautiful girl. I know that you have greater dreams than this, of being a beautiful bird locked in a gilded cage. I'm old, my darling. I've lived my life."

"If I marry your master," Belle said turning to Lumière, ignoring her father's words, though it nearly killed her to do so. "If I marry him, will I be able to keep my father in comfort?"

Lumière nodded. "His highness is almost always concerned with his own affairs. I have no doubt that he will leave you in peace to attend to your own."

Belle closed her eyes and took a breath.

"Belle!" Her father wheezed from the corner. "Belle I forbid it!"

But he could not move fast enough, and with a flourish, the beautiful young girl signed the marriage contract.

"Very well," Lumière said. "We will leave tonight."

"Tonight?" Belle stammered. "But I can't possibly – "

"A full compliment of servants will be here within the hour to care to your father's every wish. But Adamos is not to be kept waiting. We shall leave tonight."


	2. Chapter 2

Moonlight cast her face in shadows, and in the cold, her brown eyes seemed to take on an ethereal glow.

"You shall have a very comfortable life my lady." They had been traveling by the prince's carriage for nearly an hour, and Lumière simply wanted to break the silence. From across the red velvet interior, Belle stared at him with a blank expression on her face.

"Thank you, Monsieur, but Mademoiselle will be just fine, thank you."

"You are to be a princess, related by marriage to the king of France himself. Adamos is one of his favorite nephews."

"You are lying," Belle said calmly, her eyes on the passing forest once more. "If the King cared at all for his nephew or his place in the world, then he would have arranged his marriage to some princess. The he has allowed him to marry where he pleases is unheard of – which must mean that the king could care less. It doesn't speak highly of your master's character."

Lumière sat, dumbfounded.

"You are educated, Mademoiselle?"

"You barely let me say goodbye," she said, ignoring his question, and the sorrow in her voice almost undid Lumière. "Why tonight? We did we have to leave tonight? I had to leave my father in such a state?"

"Forgive me, Mademoiselle. It's just that his highness was insistent that you come to the castle immediately. His reasons are his own, but I assure you, he has nothing but your comfort in mind."

"My goodness what a liar you are."

They were the last words spoken for some time.

* * *

The carriage arrived at the palace just as the moon was high and bright, and the howls of wolves echoed across the forest.

For a few moments, Belle had forgotten her anger, amazed at the structure that loomed before her. A wrought iron gate opened to reveal an enormous castle with turrets that scratched against the night sky – as fine as any that Belle had ever read about or imagined in her wildest dreams.

_My God_, she thought. _Am I to be mistress of such a place_?

"Mademoiselle?" Lumière said, stretching his hand out toward her. "If you please?"

She was led into a great entrance hall, filled with enormous hanging tapestries and a staircase that seemed to go up and up forever. Sadness pierced Belle's heart like a knife. Never in her life had she so longed to be happy somewhere, but found that she could only muster up the smallest feelings of admiration. Any joy that the great and beautiful castle might have given her was dampened by the master that lorded over it.

_You did not have to agree marry him_, a traitorous voice whispered in her mind. _It was well within your power to live and die in that cottage_…

"Good evening, Mademoiselle." A refined voice broke through the haze of Belle's guilty conscious. Before her stood a short, round man – impeccably dressed and groomed as he swept into a low bow. "I am William Cogsworth, head of the household."

"Good – good evening." Belle gave a short bob. "Is, is my fiancé not here to greet me?"

Cogsworth had the good grace to blush.

"It is late. His highness has retired to his rooms for the evening, but I am to bring you to him imm- "

"Your master ordered me out of my home and away from my father's side immediately, and he does not even have to time to greet me himself? To ascertain the character of the woman that he has deemed worthy to be his wife?" Belle's eyes narrowed. "The life I have always known is now dead to me – your master barely let me say goodbye – "

"Mademoiselle, really I must – "

"I am tired Mr. Cogsworth. I would like to be shown to a room now." Belle stifled the urge to add a _please_ to the end of her sentence. She needed to remain strong – cold even, even if it was just for tonight. It was the only way that she would survive.

Cogsworth, for his own part, felt a small part of his heart melt. There were unshed tears in the young girl's eyes, and he had never seen such beauty and bravery in the face of such an unknown – the demands of an inconstant, selfish prince…

"Of course, Mademoiselle. If you please, I will show you to your room."

* * *

The castles east wing afforded a stunning view of the forest and the mountains beyond. It was nearly ten o clock in the evening, but the bright moon illuminated the falling snow upon Belle's balcony.

She had been fearful that the prince's servants might be cruel to her – that they might snub their noses at having to serve a girl that was a mere peasant – elevated by nothing more than their master's whim. But in truth, well, she had never been treated more kindly in her life, save for her father.

_Her father_. The thought of him sent a fresh sting of tears to Belle's eyes that she quickly dashed away. Yes, she had had to leave him, but she could care for him now, let him live out his life in comfort and peace. That was worth everything.

A knock sounded against the great double door of her room. Belle's heart stopped for a moment. Could it be?

"Mademoiselle?" A bright female voice called out. Belle breathed once more.

"Come in," she called quietly, wiping furiously at her eyes to banish the last of her tears.

Into the room came a large, smiling woman, with white hair and ruddy cheeks.

"Good evening, child," she woman said, pushing in a teacart before her. The informality instantly warmed Belle's heart. "I'm Mrs. Potts. I imagine after traveling all evening you'd like some tea."

"Why, yes," Belle admitted. "Actually, that would be wonderful." She took a steaming cup from a delighted Mrs. Potts and downed it all at once.

"Careful," Mrs. Potts scolded warmly. "That's hot, and we wouldn't want to spill."

"I – " self-consciousness flooded Belle. This was a woman used to serving princes and princesses, lords and ladies – not girls who had only read of such things.

"Barbaric of them, " Mrs. Potts continued, pouring Belle a second cup, "making you travel at night, and in this weather." The old woman's soothing voce instantly put Belle at ease.

"I hope you won't mind me saying so, child, but what you did was very brave."

"I don't understand. "

"Agreeing to marry Adamos for the sake of your father." Mrs. Potts shook her head. "Gossip travels faster in a castle than a team of six, and when you get to my age, you don't fear princes deigning to wonder that you are talking about them behind their backs."

"And yet," Belle said, "you seem to be avoiding the subject of whether I have made a terrible mistake by agreeing to marry your master."

Mrs. Potts smiled sadly. "If ever there was a woman who could save him child, I think it just might be you."

"What do you – ." But before Belle could finish the sentence, a voice rang out through the corridor beyond her bedroom door. It was nearly a roar, and utterly devoid of civility.

"Did I not instruct that she was to be brought to me immediately?"

Belle tensed – not so much at the voice, but at the pallor that had suddenly befallen Mrs. Potts.

With a great crack the doors to Belle's room were thrown open. Belle jumped up instantly, dropping her tea to the floor.

Eyes the color of ice stared back at her.


End file.
